The last weekend of October was one of the most momentous in SA’s recent political history as the Shikota movement emerged from the shadows to split the ruling party just before its centenary. Mandy Rossouw and Thembelihle Tshabalala quizzed the troops of both movements on why they had chosen their respective political directions. Paul Botes and Oupa Nkosi took the photos
Zuma speaks
Bongo Magcai (36) was seven years old when his father went to jail for ANC-related activities. As an adult he joined Umkhonto weSizwe. ”I have sacrificed my bed for some of the well-known ANC members. As a young boy I used to distribute flyers about stayÂÂaways for the ANC, so I have always been a proud member of this party.”
A metro police officer, Magcai believes that like any other home, the ANC has its problems. ”We have faced difficulties within the ANC but nothing that a family couldn’t sit down and talk about. I believe that the people who have left are cleansing the ANC of the dirt that remained. It is a lot like the sea — it removes all impurities and keeps the good. The bad apples will leave and the good and loyal will stay.
Khumo Ndlovu (23) and her twin sister, Khumonyana, are from Dobsonville and have been active in the ANC since their high school days. ”I was a member of the Congress of South African Students, which is where I learned a lot about democracy and about my rights. The ANC is part of my history, my origin and my future and I believe that to go forward I need to know where I am coming from,” she says.
Ndlovu, who is an administrator for Luthuli House, says people need to understand that voting is policy-making. ”If you vote for a party and you become a member of that party, you get to speak about your needs at branch level,” she says, adding that young people need to take part in politics. ”We need good future leaders and they will come from among us.”
Lorraine Pillay (38), a widow from Centurion, says working for a parastatal has re-politicised her. ”I have seen the weaknesses of the system and that made me realise that I have to be part of the system to correct the system,” she says. According to Pillay, the ANC’s number one value is democracy and all members live by that law. ”In Polokwane democracy spoke — it said Zuma should be president and it is through such democracy that the ANC governs and we should recognise it.”
The ANC, to Pillay, represents a better life for all. ”This party has ensured that each and every South African experiences freedom each and every day of his or her life. That, for me, is the one thing that the ANC has been able to achieve,” she says.
Nkosana Mandela (32) is a Young Communist League member and says he is part of the ANC so that he can change things. ”Most of the youth in South Africa are not working and we want to be able to change that as ANC affiliates,” he says.
Nelson Mandela says that South Africa is going to be a classless society where everyone is equal. ”The splitting away of some members doesn’t affect us at all because we have capable intellectuals who are still part of us. It is their right to leave if they want to leave, but they must stop thinking that their leaving is a crisis to the rest of the party. We are not panicking,” he says.
Nthabiseng Sehloho (72) dragged her elderly and sickly body from Moletsane, about 5km from where the rally was held. She came to the rally because of her hope of getting an identity document. ”I have been attending every event hosted by the ANC in my neighbourhood because I am hoping to get an ID,” she says.
She has never voted and the last time she had an identity document was during the apartheid era when she had a dompas, which was taken away from her when she was working as a domestic worker in the suburbs.
”I see that this ANC is doing things for people and I also want to benefit from the wonderful things that the others are getting, because when I go to the department of home affairs no one wants to speak to me, so today [Sunday] I was hoping that Msholozi would help me with that,” she says.
”If I did have an ID I would vote for the ANC because until fairly recently, I had been able to find piece jobs and work freely without fearing anyone,” she says.
Themba Mabane (30) has been a member of the ANC since he was 14. A resident of Diepkloof, he says he is happy to see the snakes within the ANC leave.
”There is no division within the ANC; the people who keep preaching division are the ones who were not loyal partners of the movement in the first place,” he says. Under the leadership of the ANC Mabane feels that young people are free to spread their wings. ”The ANC feeds the poor and it takes care of its young. Many young people have achieved things that they previously wouldn’t have achieved. The problem is that there is a perception that the ANC is for the wealthy and that perception is wrong, because the ANC does not discriminate in any way, especially not by class,” he says.
Jacob Zuma superstar
On the day Jacob Zuma addressed a Soweto crowd at the Jabulani Amphitheatre I did not attend only because I needed to file a story but because, as a Sowetan, I wanted to experience what being in Zuma’s presence means. It was a revelation.
The first revelation was that the ANC is more than just a party. It is an institution of hope for many black South Africans. That means that whatever the party’s oversights, people will remember the struggle, and because of that there will be few people who will break away to join other parties or launch new ones. ”Wherever the ANC goes I will follow,” I overhead a fan say.
Perhaps the most significant revelation concerns the man who may over the years become more than an instrument of hope for many South Africans. Jacob Zuma has indeed become like a god, it seemed to me.
I sat and watched the response of many to what he said. The atmosphere was a cross between a place of worship and a rock concert. I had always assumed that the crowds outside the courts where he has appeared in rape and corruption cases were there to press his cause and fight for justice. But it’s more than that.
But what I saw on Sunday was beyond anything a political analyst can comprehend. It was super-stardom, the kind that Elvis enjoyed. A lot of yellow T-shirts (which had the man’s face on them) were brown by the time we left because their wearers had been rolling in the sand as an expression of love for Zuma.
Shocking as that may have been, even more so were the hundreds of elderly women who used sticks for support as they stood enthusiastically singing Umshini Wam — as though it was the national anthem or a hymn inviting angels to earth. Only, the angel was Zuma.
He stood on his feet and suddenly there was silence. ”Amandla!” he said. ”Awethu,” the crowd shouted. It was at that moment I was convinced that Zuma represents something bigger than the ANC or politics. ”Amandla awakhe [The power is his]” — and it will take more than new political parties to take that power away.
Shikota launch
Alice Mosikane (54) from Kimberley in the Northern Cape says: ”I support these guys because the ANC people were unfair with us. [ANC secretary general] Gwede Mantashe came and said we are the filibusters when we were having problems. He believed them when the leaders said that things were right, but they were not.
”Mantashe destroyed the ANC that Mandela built. But we will see. We are the people who work on the grassroots, we organise, we go door to door [to campaign]. We will see who will do that now.
”We are pleased about this convention, it has the principles that Mandela cried for.”
Brenda Sakwe (33), an attorney from Johannesburg, says: ”I feel that as the youth we have not been involved, we would just let our parents go and make decisions for us.
”What is going on at the moment in politics boils down to values and that has to do with who you choose as your leader.
”We are tired of crime and poverty, it has been a while since 1994 in terms of where we are. We are going at too slow a pace, we need real change.
”I have never been involved in politics, but I share some sentiment with those who are leading this thing, they are people I have trust in. I am still an ANC supporter, though, I am weighing my options and I want to hear what these people [in the Shikota movement] have to say before I make my final decision.”
Colleen van Wyk (53), from Somerset West, Western Cape: ”I support Lekota’s thinking, I think we have finally some moral fibre resurfacing during a gloomy period in our lives.
”I used to be an IFP member but I see positive leadership in the making here and that is what we need, moral leadership. The ANC is slipping and here is something that is beginning to surface that could disturb the two-thirds majority,” she says.
”I want to go back and enlighten white students in the Western Cape who are so apathetic. We have to find a way of tweaking our conscience. I brought my two daughters along who are both students. They must know they have a role to play and can make a contribution. This movement is not just about the leaders, it is a group of like-minded folk, even the intelligentsia is moving in this direction.”
Khutso Kolwane (27), an underground operator at a diamond mine in Kuruman in the Northern Cape, says: ”I am here on behalf of the list convention that took place in the Northern Cape. I was a member of the ANC, but at the ANC they disrespect us. They will take another person for a position rather than the person we want.
”In the Kuruman region, when you attend meetings and you want to raise a point about services like water and RDP houses, they make you look like an attacker. We just want services, we just want the services to get to the people, but they don’t take our concerns seriously. I want to make sure that we give support to new leaders and give jobs to young people to be new leaders.”
Nora Statela (51) from East London says: ”I’m here because I’m thinking of my background. In 1955 my mother was fighting for our rights, now I see that our rights are destroyed.
”I want unity, I want our rights to come right, I don’t want our leaders to destroy our rights.
”The ANC started going bad since Polokwane, up to [Thabo] Mbeki the ANC was a quality ANC. Now it is not that anymore. Zuma has got a new leader, a young one that doesn’t think when he says something, everything has changed in the ANC now.”
Nozipho Moloto (48) from Guguletu in the Western Cape is an entrepreneur who owns a construction company. ”There are too many things that are going wrong, the economy of our country is going down, for instance. That is why I am here,” she says.
”The way we were treated at branch level was very bad. They would harass you, you can’t voice your opinion. We were not treated as members. It is like when things are going badly at home, you have to run outside to escape. You can’t stay there.
”It is about greed, those on top think they own the organisation. We are coming to fetch the name and the emblem and the colours of the ANC and take it back. The discipline is not the same. The language they use, the rudeness, when you talk they howl.
”Some leaders also think they are now something. One of the leaders used to be my friend and we used to be in branch committees together. Now she is up there, so now she can’t talk to you anymore. I’m in construction because there are a lot of opportunities for women. I’m going to build a bridge one day, I tell you.”